Results tagged “meningitis”

The Department of Health is investigating whether there is another case of meningitis at Stuyvesant High School. Last week, a student died from the infection that causes meningitis. The Daily News reports, "Officials have not said [Ava Hecht] died from the contagious disease but have said her symptoms were consistent with bacterial meningitis" and the Health Department had been working to alert people in close contact with Hecht. The other student is currently being treated for the possible meningitis. Additionally, symptoms include "fever, headache, vomiting, stiff neck and a rash."

The Department of Health believes that the sudden death of a 17-year-old Stuyvesant High School senior on Thursday may have been from a bacterial infection known to cause meningitis. Ava Hecht of Bayside, Queens died Thursday afternoon after friends say she appeared fine in class earlier in the week and even had been working on homework the night before. Health officials began alerting students at Stuyvesant Friday, where a moment of silence was held for Ava and seniors were broken the news in an assembly. Ava sang in the chorus, was a cartoonist for the school paper, The Spectator, and drew a comic, "Soprano Man", that was based on a singing friend whom she transformed into a super hero. The school has set up a Facebook page as a memorial and in less than 48 hours it already has 1,300 members and 75 wall postings. A doctor for the DOH said that while there are a few dozen meningitis cases annually, “We see something like this once or twice a year.”

A 17-year-old student at Massapequa High School died of bacterial meningitis yesterday. Michael Gruber had gone to bed with flu-like symptoms on Wednesday and on Thursday morning his parents were unable to wake him up. He died at New Island Hospital.